JP2516077B2 - Steering wheel - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a steering wheel of a vehicle having a power steering apparatus having a steering delay correction function.

<Prior Art> In a power steering apparatus used in a vehicle, a delay occurs due to a time lag between the start of steering by the steering wheel and the start of power steering by operating the power cylinder. The steering force and steering amount are measured to correct the delay in steering.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In the steering force and steering amount inspection means by the steering wheel, the rim cover is relatively moved to a rim (core bar) integrated with a plurality of spokes radially extending from the steering shaft. A sensor such as a differential transformer is provided at the position of this spoke, which is supported as much as possible, and which detects the relative displacement between the rim and the rim cover.

Therefore, in the case where a plurality of (generally three) spokes are arranged at equal intervals on the circumference, the support portions of the rim cover are arranged at even positions on the circumference, so that relative movement can be smoothly obtained. The spokes interfere with the visibility of the meter on the meter panel.

In order to make this meter visible enough, it is possible to gather the spokes in the lower half of the rim as much as possible and form a large space in the upper half. However, since the supporting portion of the rim cover is at the spoke position, the supporting points of the rim cover are concentrated in the lower half, the supporting function of the upper half is lost, and the smooth movement of the relative movement of the rim cover is lost.

<Means for solving the problem> Steering force and its change between a plurality of spokes arranged in the lower half of the circumference and a rim cover integrally supported with the rim and a rim cover which is relatively movable. A sub power cylinder or a power cylinder that includes a steering inspection device for measuring the amount and a centering mechanism and precedes the pressure oil controlled by a directional control valve that controls the power cylinder in response to a signal from the steering inspection device. In the steering wheel for controlling the power steering device, which is equipped with a solenoid valve for delay delay correction that supplies the steering force to the power steering system, the steering wheel is supported inside two rims on the left and right of the upper half of the circumference. A plate is provided to project, a support member is attached to the rim cover, and a relative movement support mechanism for the rim and the rim cover in which the support member is supported on the support plate via a bearing is provided. It is characterized in that

<Operation> With the above configuration, the rim cover is evenly supported by a plurality of support portions on its circumference so as to be relatively movable with respect to the rim.
It is possible to maintain a smooth relative movement and increase the viewing space of the meter.

<Example> An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First
In the figure, 1 is a steering wheel, 2 is a steering shaft, and 3 is a power cylinder.

A piston 4 having a rack 6 is slidably fitted in the power cylinder 3, and is divided into a left oil chamber 5a and a right oil chamber 5b by the piston 4. Also, the piston 4
A nut 10 is integrally provided on the shaft 10, and a ball screw shaft 9 coaxial with the steering shaft 2 is screwed into the nut 10.
A sector gear 8 provided on a cross shaft 7 is meshed with the rack 6, and a pitman arm 12 is connected to the cross shaft 7 and is connected to a steering link.

Reference numeral 13 is a direction control valve for switching the supply and discharge of pressure oil to the left and right oil chambers 5a and 5b of the power cylinder 3. The directional control valve 13 has a spool 14 provided therein so as to be movable left and right, and is connected by an operating rod 11 integrated with the nut 10 and a pin 15 projecting from the spool 14.

In addition, the directional control valve 13 has a pressure oil supply passage 18 communicating with an oil passage 25 connected to the discharge port of the hydraulic pump 17, and an oil supply to a reservoir 22 connected to the suction port of the hydraulic pump 17. Road
A pressure oil return path 19 communicating with 26 is connected. Reference numeral 29 is a check valve provided in the pressure oil supply passage 18.

Further, the direction control valve 13 is connected to the port 16a on the left oil chamber 5a side and the port 16b on the right oil chamber 5b side of the power cylinder 3.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a variable throttle valve, which is operated by a stepping motor 20 controlled by the vehicle speed, is arranged in a bypass passage 21a for pilot pressure oil supplied to both ends of the spool 14 of the directional control valve 13, and The hydraulic pressure chambers 14-1 and 14-2 that enter are throttled to reduce the communication of reaction force hydraulic pressure according to the increase in vehicle speed, and the difference in the reaction force hydraulic pressure between the hydraulic pressure chambers is increased to increase the steering force at high speed. Is.

Reference numeral 30 is a sub-power cylinder for correcting the turning delay during steering. A piston 31 in the sub power cylinder 30 and a steering system such as the pitman arm 12 are connected by a rod 32.

Reference numerals 23a and 23b are first and second electromagnetic control valves for controlling the supply and discharge of pressure oil to and from the sub power cylinder 30, respectively. The first and second electromagnetic control valves 23a and 23b are solenoids 24a and 24b commanded by a detection signal of a steering force of the steering wheel 1 described later.
And a spool operated by the solenoids 24a and 24b.

The first and second electromagnetic control valves 23a and 23b are connected to the oil passages 25 and 26, and the first electromagnetic control valve 23a is connected to the sub power cylinder 3
The right oil chamber 30a of 0 is connected by a pipe line 27, and the second electromagnetic control valve 23b is connected by the left oil chamber 30b by a pipe line 28.

FIG. 2 shows a control signal circuit. Reference numeral 34 denotes a computer, which inputs a detection signal of a vehicle speed sensor 33 and a steering force of the steering wheel 1 and a variation thereof, and outputs a command signal to the stepping motor 20 and solenoids 24a and 24b of the first and second electromagnetic control valves 23a and 23b. Is output.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the cut-off delay correction mechanism in which the sub-power cylinder 30 shown in FIG. 1 is omitted. In the case of this embodiment, the conduit 27 from the first electromagnetic control valve 23a is connected to the port 16a of the left oil chamber 5a of the power cylinder 3, and the conduit 28 from the second electromagnetic control valve 23b is connected to the right oil chamber 5b. It is connected to the port 16c provided in the.

Next, the configuration of the steering wheel 1 is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

The three spokes 40a, 40b, 40c radially attached to the steering shaft 2 and the spokes 40a, 40b, 4
A rim 42 whose inner diameter is attached and supported at 0c, and a rim that covers the periphery of this rim 42 and is movable relative to the rim 42 in the circumferential direction.
The rim cover 41 is supported by 42.

The rim cover 41 includes support parts 70 for the left and right two spokes 40a, 40c, a support part 60 for the central spoke 40b, and two support parts for the left and right parts where the spokes 40a, 40b, 40c do not exist. It is supported by 80 so as to be movable relative to the rim 42. The structure of the supporting portions 60 and 70 will be described with reference to FIG.

A support member 44 is attached to the rim cover 41, and a pair of bearings 45a and 45b for holding the front and back surfaces of the spoke 40b are attached to the support member 44. Also spoke 40b
A bearing 46 that is in contact with the support member 44 is attached to the.

As shown in FIG. 6, the supporting structure of the supporting portion 80 has a supporting plate 51 protruding from the rim 42 because there are no spokes at this portion, and the supporting member 52 attached to the rim cover 41 is attached to the supporting member 52. Attach a pair of bearings 53a and 53b that hold the front and back sides of the support plate 51,
A bearing 54 that is in contact with the support member 52 is attached to this.

The support portion 70 is provided with a centering mechanism for the rim cover 41 with respect to the rim 42, and the support portion 60 is provided with an inspection device for steering force and its variation (hereinafter referred to as steering inspection device).

As shown in FIG. 7, the centering mechanism has a leaf spring 50 fixed to one or both of the spokes 40a, 40c in the same direction as the axis of the spoke 40a, and the other end capable of rocking a bullet is supported. The structure is formed by engaging with an engaging member 49 fixed to the member 44.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 8, the steering inspection device is provided with a differential transformer 48 having a coil 47 on a spoke 40b, and an iron piece 43 facing the coil 47 on a supporting member 44. It is a structure. The detection signal of the differential transformer 48 is input to the computer 34 described above.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the steering wheel 1 is provided with an indicator lamp 90 for an operation signal and a failure signal for correction of delay delay on the boss portion of the steering wheel 1 where a plurality of spokes 40a, 40b, 40c are gathered. There is.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. The power cylinder 3 is moved to the left and right by the steering wheel 1 to the left and right to move the spool 14 of the pressure oil control valve 13 to the left and right.
The steering force is reduced by switching between pressure oil supply and discharge. Further, the variable throttle valve 21 makes the steering force heavy as the vehicle speed increases.

On the other hand, the steering wheel 1 has its rim cover 41.
Is subjected to the centering action of always returning to the neutral position by the centering mechanism of the leaf spring 50.

Therefore, when the steering wheel is steered, the rim cover 41 is displaced relative to the rim 42 based on the elastic force of the leaf spring 50.
This relative displacement amount is, in other words, the steering force including the steering direction and its variation amount, which is measured by the differential transformer 48 and input to the computer 34. And computer
34 commands the first solenoid valve 23a or the second solenoid valve 23b to operate.

In FIG. 1, when an operation command is given to the first solenoid valve 23a, pressure oil is supplied to the right oil chamber 30a of the sub power cylinder 30, the piston 31 moves leftward, and the piston 31 moves leftward to the pitman arm 12 via the rod 32. It acts in the direction moving force. At this time, the right oil chamber 5a of the power cylinder 3 is also supplied from the directional control valve 13, but since the operation of the sub power cylinder 30 precedes, the cutting delay at the time of stationary cutting is corrected and the stationary cutting force is reduced. .

When an operation command is given to the second solenoid valve 23b, pressure oil is supplied to the left oil chamber 30b of the sub power cylinder 30, and a rightward moving force acts on the pitman arm 12 in advance of the power cylinder 3.

In the case of another embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the first and second solenoid valves 23
The pressure oil from a and 23b directly goes to the left and right oil chambers 5 of the power cylinder 3.
The oil is supplied to a and 5b prior to the pressure oil supplied from the directional control valve 13 to correct the cut-off delay.

In the above embodiment, the solenoid valve for compensating the cut-off delay is composed of two solenoid valves, but one solenoid valve is used for the sub power cylinder.
It is also possible to switch and supply the pressure oil to the right and left oil chambers 30a and 30b of 30 or the left and right oil chambers 5a and 5b of the power cylinder 3.

In the steering wheel 1 having the inspection function for correcting the steering delay, the supporting portion of the rim cover 41 with respect to the rim 42 is not limited to the three points of the spokes 40a, 40b, and 40c, and two points of a portion where no spoke exists. Since it is also supported by the support portion 80, the support rigidity of the rim cover 41 does not decrease even if the three spokes 40a, 40b, 40c are arranged as close together as possible as much as possible. Therefore, the upper half portion of the steering wheel 1 A large opening is obtained, and each meter of the meter panel from this opening can be easily visually recognized without disturbing the spokes.

In addition, the operation of the delay delay correction and the failure signal display lamp 90
Is concentratedly installed on the boss portion of the steering wheel 1, so that the visibility of the driver is improved.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the present invention, the spokes are present in the steering wheel in which the arrangement of the spokes is gathered as close as possible to the lower half of the rim to make a large space in the upper half to improve the visibility of the meters. A support plate is provided so as to project inside the left and right two places of the rim of the upper half portion which is not attached, and a support member is attached to the rim cover, and the relative movement between the rim and the rim cover supported by the support member on the support plate through a bearing. Since the support mechanism is provided, the smoothness of the relative movement of the rim cover is ensured by improving the support rigidity of the rim cover and equalizing the support points.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a power steering device, FIG. 2 is a control signal circuit diagram, and FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the power steering device.
FIG. 4 is a front view of the steering wheel, and FIG. 5 is a front view.
FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line VV, FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line VI-VI of FIG. 5, FIG. 7 is a front view of the centering mechanism, and FIG. 8 is a front view of the inspection device. 1 ... Steering wheel, 2 ... Steering shaft, 3 ... Power cylinder, 13 ... Directional control valve, 17 ...
... hydraulic pump, 23a ... first solenoid valve, 23b ... second solenoid valve, 30 ... sub power cylinder, 40a, 40b, 40c ... spoke, 41 ... rim cover, 42 ... rim, 44 ... support Member, 45a, 45b, 46 ... Bearing, 48 ... Differential transformer, 50 ... Leaf spring, 51 ... Support plate, 52 ... Support member, 53a, 53b, 54 ... Bearing, 90 ... Indicator lamp .

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A steering force and its change amount are measured between a plurality of spokes arranged in a lower half of a circumference and arranged on a rim and a rim cover which is supported so as to be movable relative to each other. A steering inspection device and a centering mechanism for supplying pressure oil to the sub power cylinder or the power cylinder prior to the pressure oil controlled by the directional control valve that controls the power cylinder according to the signal from the steering inspection device. In a steering wheel for controlling a power steering device equipped with a solenoid delay correction solenoid valve for applying a steering force to a power steering system, a support plate is provided inside two left and right sides of a rim in an upper half portion of a circumference. Then, a supporting member is attached to the rim cover, and a relative movement supporting mechanism for the rim and the rim cover, which supports the supporting member on the supporting plate via a bearing, is provided. Steering wheel that.